A cloud casts a shadow on the neighborhood of Har Homa in east Jerusalem on Thursday. Aides to Israel's prime minister say he has officially rejected President Barack Obamas demand to suspend all construction in the contested area.
JERUSALEM - Israel's prime minister on Thursday rejected U.S. calls to halt construction in disputed East Jerusalem, clouding a new peace mission by Washington's Mideast envoy.Benjamin Netanyahu's comments were broadcast on Israel's Channel 2 TV shortly after envoy George Mitchell arrived for his first visit in six weeks. Mitchell's efforts had been on hold due to disagreements over East Jerusalem, the section of the holy city claimed by Israel and the Palestinians.
"I am saying one thing. There will be no freeze in Jerusalem," Netanyahu said. "There should be no preconditions to talks."
Although Netanyahu was repeating his long-standing position, the timing of the statement threatened to undermine Mitchell's latest efforts to restart peace talks. Mark Regev, an Israeli government spokesman, denied earlier reports that Israel had officially rejected an American demand for a settlement freeze in Jerusalem.The status quo is not sustainable
In Washington, the State Department said the decision to send Mitchell was made late Wednesday after lower-level officials had meetings with Israeli and Palestinian representatives.
"We don't go to meet just to meet. We go there because we have some indication that both sides are willing to engage seriously on the issues that are on the table," said spokesman P.J. Crowley.
"We understand that the Israelis have a long-standing position," he added. "But ... the status quo is not sustainable.
Mitchell arrived after a month-long break sparked by a dispute over Israeli construction in east Jerusalem, hoping to prod the Israelis and Palestinians to launch negotiations for the first time in more than a year.
It was far from certain whether he would succeed, though Israeli and Palestinian officials both indicated that they were ready to get past the deadlock.
The sides were set to begin indirect peace talks in early March when Israel revealed plans to build 1,600 homes for Jews in east Jerusalem. The announcement, which came during a visit by Vice President Joe Biden, infuriated the Americans and prompted the Palestinians to postpone the indirect talks indefinitely.
The U.S. has been pushing Israel to cancel the planned housing project, halt other east Jerusalem construction and make other confidence-building measures to the Palestinians.
Netanyahu has repeatedly refused to curb Jewish construction in east Jerusalem, saying he is following a four-decade-old policy of his predecessors. Israel considers all of the city to be its eternal capital.There are ups and downs
But in the TV interview, he said he hopes to resolve the differences with Washington, Israel's closest and most important ally.
"There are ups and downs. There is a very strong fabric of relations that will allow us to overcome these problems in the end and reach understandings," he said.
Israeli officials declined to say what gestures were under consideration. The government has debated proposals to free some of the thousands of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, turn over more West Bank territory to Palestinian control and possibly curb Jewish construction in the heart of Arab neighborhoods in east Jerusalem.

SEBASTIAN SCHEINER / ASSOCIATED PRESS​

Construction workers work on a new housing development, as an Israeli flag flies in the foreground, in the Jewish neighborhood of Har Homa, in east Jerusalem, Thursday.
Some 180,000 Israelis live in East Jerusalem, the vast majority in Jewish neighborhoods that ring the area. But an estimated 2,000 Israeli nationalists live deep inside Arab neighborhoods, creating friction between the sides.
An estimated 250,000 Palestinians live in Arab neighborhoods of the city. A halt to Israeli housing activity in these areas, while short of U.S. and Palestinian demands for a freeze in all of east Jerusalem, would nonetheless mark a concession by Israel.
Netanyahu would have a hard time selling even limited concessions to his government, a coalition dominated by hard-line nationalist parties.
"It is just impossible and unacceptable that people try to impress us that we should limit construction in Jerusalem," Benny Begin, a senior Cabinet minister, told foreign reporters and diplomats Thursday.
The status of East Jerusalem is the most explosive issue dividing Israelis and Palestinians. Israel captured the area  home to key Jewish, Muslim and Christian holy sites  in the 1967 Mideast war and immediately annexed it. The annexation has never been internationally recognized.
Mitchell arrived late Thursday for his first visit since the spat with Israel erupted during Biden's visit in early March. He was scheduled to meet separately with Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Friday. CONTINUED : 'Very unfortunate'1 | 2 | Next >

PRO Two-State - Ehud Barak, MSc, 16th Prime Minister of Israel from 1999-2001, in a June 13, 2002 New York Times Review of Books article titled "Camp David and After: An Exchange," offered the following:

"It is true that there are demographic threats to its [Israel's] existence. That is why a separation from the Palestinians is a compelling imperative. Without such a separation [into two states] there is no future for the Zionist dream."

Religion is stupid and this is apartheid, it is illegal, it is a gross breach of human rights... Hakuna cha Abraham wala cha ishmael wala Issac. They are all either dead jewish people from ancient times who dont mean sh*t or never existed at all beyond the imagination of some ancient script writers.. Nikama Batman na Superman.. This thing is so stupid and humans are effin animals to allow things like this to happen in the world. Injustice breeds hate and resentment and that breeds terrorism, war, rape, tears, blood, hunger and death. That is what humanity is about.. Effin dogs, we are. Even dogs do not do this..

Israel is crushing the hopes for a palestinian state because America wont allow it to attack Iran. That is the key issue here, they want Iran's nuclear programme to be destroyed but the US doesnt want to disturb the balance by allowing a direct confrontation which would be equal to an act of war, Iran will close its straits making the price of petrol go up and threaten the recovery which Obama needs to work for his re-election.

So its all a game, its a shame that Israeli children need to live in fear of rockets and palestinian hospitals have no medicine and people die like sheep in Gaza. That is the morality of our superior human race... Where are the Zeta Reticulians waje watu annihilate maana we are wasting the planet's potential. We are soo weak as a race that we cant even solve something simple like this.. Kwani Israel watakosa nini wakitoa East Jerusalem, na wapalestina watakosa nini wakiishi side by side with the Israelis.. Its really an issue of humans being tyrants and it normally takes a great deal of suffering for people to wake up.. Hailing all Zeta Greys... zap us with ur plasma weapons plz lol

The state of Israel does not believe that the Messiah will really return. That is a most absurd suggestion. That someone will fall from the sky (unless an alien civilization..EBE) to reclaim the city of Jerusalem.. It is completely superstitious and that is why it hasnt happened from the time of Moses until the death of our Sun roughly 5billion years from now. In short, hakunaga kitu kama hicho. If Israel had been a state really run by people who believe in such things, they would not have developed 200 nuclear warheads. Yani hakunaga kitu kama hicho. The bronze age theology is used to re enforce territorial claim in the 21st Century that is all. There is no messiah and no human being is going to fall from the sky... coming from heaven. That will never ever happen in reality. Religion is truly the nectar of the masses.

How do you people rationally argue that some guy will fall from the sky, he might burn up as he enters the atmosphere..due to friction..lol This will never happen...never ever.. believing this rubble is quite an astonishing fact. 21st Century people.. All people have rights and all people deserve a home and security with it, that means both Israel and Palestine should be allowed to exist in peace and should learn to be neighbours. No messiah is going to come ever, we are the messiah, we can save or destroy our own human civilization. Religious sentiments have nothing to do with this, and is used to promote injustice on both sides. God does not love war, suffering and bullets.

How do you people rationally argue that some guy will fall from the sky, he might burn up as he enters the atmosphere..due to friction..lol This will never happen...never ever.. believing this rubble is quite an astonishing fact. 21st Century people.. All people have rights and all people deserve a home and security with it, that means both Israel and Palestine should be allowed to exist in peace and should learn to be neighbours. No messiah is going to come ever, we are the messiah, we can save or destroy our own human civilization. Religious sentiments have nothing to do with this, and is used to promote injustice on both sides. God does not love war, suffering and bullets.